Diet Trials

Well this will be boring for anyone but me, but it seems like the ideal place to keep track of things.

Summit's eating issues:

Acana Pacifica - ate very slowly, hesitated often when eating and would walk away from meals and skipped some meals all together.

Acana Chicken and Cobbs - slow eating, bloody diarrhea, would stop eating for up to 24 hours. Antibiotics would clear things up quickly.

Pork and Oatmeal Diet - threw up once, usually ate enthusiastically but had very soft stools more than 50% of the time. Would often eat grass first thing in the morning and was getting up in the middle of the night a lot to go outside.

Pork and Potato - started Dec 28. Three days in and we've had solid poops! Jan 1, ate really, really slowly and seemed a bit uncomfortable. Poop has been mostly solid but still having some soft episodes and actual diarrhea on Jan 10. He did have a frozen kong filled with vegetarian canned food (soy and rice) the day before. Will stop giving these and see if things improve. He had soft poop and diarrhea for the last few days.

Jan 1: So this might be completely unrelated, but for a month now, Summit has had a weird, fearful reaction to the kitchen fan and sizzling food. He gets extremely anxious and unsettled and can't stand to be in the area. He'll ask to go outside and when he comes in, if he hears the sound, he'll instantly dive back outside. We'll sometimes go upstairs and hang out together until the cooking is done. Up until now, he hasn't shown any fears to anything noises or frankly much. I've done a quick google search and there does seem to be some link between gut health and anxiety. He also seems to be nursing his toys much more than usual. This was very obvious while on the Pork and Oatmeal diet... less so with the Pork and Potato.

Beef and Potato - started Jan 14. So far very gassy. Day 2 - puked up breakfast his entire breakfast. Then started to have bloody diarrhea.

Stopped feeding Beef and started antibiotics

Lamb - RAW - started Jan 15. Finding poop is suddenly "too firm" so have added pumpkin to his diet as well. Jan 21 - puked during the day and then was up in the middle of the night eating grass. Jan 24 and 25 - wanting up in middle of the night in order to eat grass.

Jan 29 - Got test results back from Hemopet Saliva Test. They suggested he was sensitive to Corn, Chicken and white fish. Unfortunately the food he was on contained whitefish oil.

Goat - Sojos - started Jan 30. Puked up his entire first meal. Switched to 3 smaller meals per day (instead of 2) and things have been better. Still getting up in the middle of the night. Poop isn't nearly as firm as on the Lamb, but nothing too frightening. Had one day of liquid diarrhea (no blood) but he rebounded and it improved again. We have noticed his fear of the indoor grill and sizzling meat has improved lately. Feb 11 - straining to poop and quite soft and unformed. Threw up in the middle of the night on the evening of the 12th. Continues to have soft poop on and off. Threw up before bed on Feb 16. Constantly had soft poop on and off. Always getting up in the night. Lost 5 pounds. Started feeding him around 2,000 calories a day. Lots of undigested food in his poop.

March 7 - Rayne CROCODILIA-MAINT. Recommended by the vet. Doing the kibble for meals and treats and the canned food in kongs. March 15 - On the second day he spent quite a bit of time eating grass but he's since settled in. He's no longer starving all the time. He's eating a normal amount of calories. His poop has been great. No vomitting either. So far, it's the best he's done. March 23 - threw up some breakfast this morning and over the past week/few days his poop has been getting much softer. It's not liquid, but it is basically pudding-like consistency. March 23 - stopped giving the treats. Things improved for a few days - poop was slightly more formed. March 28 - started pooping in the middle of the night daily. March 30 - also vomitted in the middle of the night (as well as pooped). March 31 - eating lots of grass and super gassy. Seems to be a little thin - have been increasing food slightly to compensate. Continuing to poop in the middle of the night. April 3, refused to eat breakfast, eating grass like crazy. Threw up grass.

April 3 - Got a fecal transplant. Weighs 23.9 kg which is a little thin. Held transplant in for just under 2 hours.

He was pretty gassy for the rest of April 3 and had a very noisy tummy. Woke up gassy on the 4th but by the time the afternoon rolled around it was better. He stopped getting up in middle of the night but his poop remained the same. The evening of Apr 5 he had a good looking poop and he's had 2 more decent ones on Apr 6. He doesn't appear to be straining any more and he's able to poop in just the one spot (instead of two) in a reasonable amount of time.

April 9 - After having decent poop for about 36 hours he went back to straining, soft poops. So we switched foods again. This is our last food before a biopsy - Anallergenic - Royal Canin. I'm not happy with the corn starch being the first ingredient but it was from the three I had to choose from, it was the one went with. April 11 - GREAT poop last night and this morning, but he's frantically eating grass (and puking it back up) and ate very, very slowly this morning. Threw up breakfast on Apr 13. Eating ok (slow some meals, not others) and pooping well. Limited grass eating. Still sleeping through the night. April 14 we were coming home from St. Mary’s and he peed in his crate. Just laid there and peed. April 16 - walked away from dinner before finishing it. April 27 - got up in the middle of the night. Poop is usually quite pale and yellow - occasionally has dark brown poop. Most are quite firm. Found puke the evening of April 28 - assuming it was Summit's. Definitely not a cat's as there was grass in it. Puked up half of breakfast May 1. May 5 puked up partially digested food in the afternoon. May 6 - SUPER restless all night. Constantly asking to go outside. May 9 have switched to 4 meals a day to try and reduce puking. Has needed out to poop last few nights. With the more frequent meals, the puking has stopped. Still wanting out in the middle of the night.

May 24 - added 1/8 tsp metamucil to each meal in an attempt to soften his poop. Two walks in a row he puked at the end of the walk (or in the car on the way home) so we stopped adding the fibre.

May 30 - Decided to crate Summit in the evenings to see if that helped with late night trips outside and it seems to have fixed the problem. For the first week he seemed to be uncomfortable at times (panting in the middle of the night) but that seemed to subside. He definitely poops very first thing when he gets up.

June 8 - Switched him over to Acana Pork. Poops are larger and softer and he's often straining to poop for quite some time. No blood. No vomitting. Occasionally there is very soft poop or liquid diarrhea but the next poop is usually better. Most poops are a 3-4 on "poop scale". Still crated at night as of June 29 but haven't tried him loose yet to see if he will ask to go out.